Observations of the illusion through the eyes of wonder…

Door To Nowhere/#Thursdaydoors

When we lived in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, we very regularly hiked a steep, hilly road from the main road down to the playitas that were more secluded than the typical tourist beach area.

This elaborate door was off to the side and I have photos of it actually standing open…..somewhere.

For now you must trust me when I tell you that this door for all inents and purposes led nowhere. We could peek around either side and see that it was just a door and doorway, with straight up jungle behind it. We wondered about it, thinking soon something would go up behind it. Nothing ever did, really, but on our last visit there, someone left the door open and we took a closer look. We did see some stone steps winding down and disappearing into nowhere…….

Somewhere.

Just like the door itself. Just like Costa Rica. So much beauty behind the doors, the faces, down the steps and around every corner….amazing and wonderful treasures that I want to share with you.

Remembering Costa Rica.

This is absolutely the most daring thing I have ever done…and the most exhilarating! (I loved the double dip in the water.

Can you smell the salt?Water, waterEverywhere! Captain of my own destiny…for five minutes. 😉

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Why it isn’t a good idea to carry bananas on you! Lol This was “staged” by the hotel owner so I could have some fun.

The mountain viewsAnd friends who love sharing their country’s gifts!Sharing its miracles. This was a miracle moment for me.Good food. Thanks Barba Roja.Friends who helped us learn our way.Unique experiences in faraway places

(Tap photos for captions)

Easy to smile in paradise!

Little hummers

Savegre Mountains

Always……

Learning new traditions. They mostly put Christmas trees on the front porch. 🤔

Gorgeous crawling beast

We actually saved this boa’s life. I jumped out to alert oncoming traffic so it didn’t get crushed ( and the tourists coming up on foot so they didn’t suffer a heart attack)

Can you hear my sighs, Cheryl? OH to be able to travel and experience the many places on this earth that hold so much beauty and mystery. Costa Rica! Now I have another place on my list. Now that is somewhere I can imagine living, not just vacationing. I suppose though all those gorgeous sunsets and all that sunshine and all that water would get boring after a while. Hmmmm ….. Beautiful photographs and I thank you for sharing them with me! 💝

Hahaha! Yes. Soooooo boring… I do hope you get to visit there someday Amy. At times the beach was such a saving grace. There are several uber hot months of the year there and AC is a luxury there. We had ine unit in our bedroom for sleeping, so on humid days we just headed out for an adventure. My favorite thing about living near oceans is the usually constant breezes. It was hard to go there and leave this familiar world behind and yet it broke my heart when we had to come back. Such is the soul of a Cancer Crab like me. Thank you!

My dream is to live in a place like that. I lived in Florida when younger and I just could not get enough of the ocean. When I went to Italy and saw the Mediterranean my heart just about stopped. *sighI* Oh yes, water … green, sand … mountains too ….. dream on, Ame! 🙂

Ohhh I always wanted to see the Mediterraean areas. Italy is such a distant dream, as is Ireland. Hubby longed for tropical life so off we went. Life has a cruel way of changing the tides, as it were. But at least we decided to land near anither ocean. There are still things I miss about “home” and of course Costa Rica, but life here is definitely beautiful and never boring. I will be happy when I am able to enjoy it on any day I choose. 😉

Cheryl, the Mediterranean Sea pulled on me so hard that I really really want to live in Italy on the coast when this present “phase” of my life comes to an end. How I will do this beats me and who I will do this with that I don’t know that either and where exactly on the coast of Italy, don’t know that as well. But I do know what my eyes saw and how I felt … as though I had come home … have stayed with me all these years. Know how to speak Italian? Nope. Still wanna live there? Yep! I know …. makes no sense. Perhaps you ad me can globe trot a bit to some of our favorite places. Stay in shape and stay strong, will ya, so I have someone to go with? 😜😎😉
PS As for what you mentioned about life, I so agree with you. You can have the best laid plans but dang if the rug isn’t whipped out from under your feet and those plans scatter to the four winds. Yep, know that too. I understand you were referring to something else when you said what you said but I just couldn’t resist saying what I did either. 😳

I think you read between the lines pretty well Amy. Something tells me we could blaze a world trail laughing all the while. Sometimes I long for Ireland so much it feels like homesickness. And I have yet to visit there. Oh! I want more than anything to walk the Camino in Spain.

Oh wow you sound like me!! How i dream of me and my Canon seeking the world. Who am I kidding? I’m no longer young and to be a photo journalist I would have to start out young. Maybe next life. OH yes Spain is on my list … SO many places!! Ireland yes there too. Hawai’i. And so we seem like mirrors of the other. For now I seek adventure and beauty in what is around me now. And when I do I scratch the wander itch. To go back in time and know what I do now …. sighs ….. Dang!

Seriously? By the time I realized what I longed to be-a photojournalist😱-I already had four sons and a mortgage. I guess it is why blogging appeals to me so much. I knew I wanted to be a photojournalist when I saw a photo of Candice Bergen on the cover of National Geographic with the lost pigmies in Africa. I was enthralled. She took a place at the top of my list of heroes. Shirley MacLaine walked the Camino in her 60’s! We can do it.

OMG! Un-frigging-believable, Cheryl. How I dream of being free of the responsibilities that are my reality today to be able to gather me and my camera plus a whole lot of lenses, filters etc etc …. LOL … And GO! If not this lifetime the next one. No joking here. I didn’t know I have the talents I do until I was in my 40’s. And that happened all due to a really bad back injury. LONG STORY that calls for a drink. (wink) I must believe that the path I’m on right now is heading me towards my dreams. In the meantime … I cherish my camera as is, and seek the mystery, the charm, the jaw dropping beauty, and of course my life accounts for these stories I write giving me plenty of practice to perfect the written word. Now how do you expect me to sleep tonight after this conversation? Holy moly! Can you believe this? And all this has transpired ever since I figured out you are Dan’s Cheryl. *shaking head in wonder* And of course you being the bartender and all have the “gift” of talking to people as do I (I find people telling me their life stories sometimes…. eye roll!) so just imagine the two of us serious yet frivolous, smart yet sassy, going after what our hearts are pointing to, side by side at times silent for hours so focused on what we are shooting, then writing away again in comfortable silence, getting silly talking our heads off and laughing as we mingle with people from all over the world. Oh my. You’ve got my imagination exploding …… Oh man!!!

Unbelievable no. Amazing yes! And you are nit the only one in recent months. I have been propelled onto a path I have longed for but it is exhilarating and frightening at once. I can definitely see msyelf on such journeys as you speak of but not in my current life circumstances. I still have my journals and writings from as far back as elementary school. I am constantly amazrped at how my emotions, my conviction and outlook have not changed. I have merely developed a broader scope of experience and vocabulary. Oh, and I gave up my dream of art and literature for a more “sensible” career as an ophthalmic technician. I, too, chose a profession in patient care. 😮🙃

I’ve been on a path too, Cheryl, yet I’m still rather numb just going for the ride, not daring to even hope that my dreams will come true. Too many disappointments and too many times life has taught me how cruel it can be. I just know I’m doing what I love to do and I will not quit. If you stood in my shoes and saw what my life entails, you’d get it. Yet I know I really know how fast things can change so my attitude is IF and WHEN it happens it does. IF not, I’m still loving every moment of my life NOW while I can. I also know how single minded I can be and when I make up my mind to do something I do it. As for that career that ended with my back injury yet today I still find myself as a caregiver running single handedly a mini-Vet clinic, so to speak, from my home, keeping our beloved cats as healthy and happy as possible. They have health conditions that medicine has no answers for (but of course!) so hubby and I have turned to alternative methods but also combine allopathic (modern medicine) with those modalities as well. I know all kinds of things (smile) which “spirit” has taught me too. No I cannot explain that one. These things just happen and continue to do so. 😳😜😉

Although our paths often twist and trun I do believe we make our way to the desired end. I also believe we have choices for how we choose to meet that end. I’m most certain your feline friends are thankful your choices, whether conscious or unconscious, led you to caring for them. I chose to not put myself first and then did so in a huge way for the first time out of the need to survive. But again I am in the comfortable all too familiar seat of letting someone else choose the direction we go in. As with you, if you could see my life, you would understand. I choose to share the brilliance of it. 12mobes in 37 years. A dozen new lives, making friends, building a home only to have to disassemble it again. For a Cancer that is devastating. But I am also good at building them up so immersed myself in those moments. Yes, in another life I may realize more of these dreams I try to keep alive. Right now I am reading The Artist’s Way. Have you heard of it?

Being I’m in the middle of Cat Care I will be brief. Yes I’ve heard of the Artist’s Way and in fact have the book. Now you will have me digging it out to again put my nose in it. I also believe all things work towards a common goal or goals. Just had a conversation with my chiropractor about how it takes lifetimes in order to master a certain goal. It is just not possible to do in one life. I also know what we learn is like building blocks for the next level of learning and doing. The growth I’ve seen in me has been amazing. I would not have succeeded what I now dream of in my earlier years. I was not ready. So you see all in your life when you follow a certain Way which we both are will all be used when those secret dreams come to pass. What I am doing now is preparation for those dreams. Just the photography alone… the more I learn the more I realize I don’t know. Fascinating journey. Huh. Me brief? 🤣

Nice to meet you Ms. Bull. 😉 My grandson’s mother is a Taurus but you would think an Aquarius with her easy ways and hippie spirit. We get along very well. I have had two “accidental” intuitive readings in my life and both said I am avoiding financial success in this life in order to do more altruistic things. They saw art around me as well. I personally think I have had lives built around wealth and they brought no real happiness. While I appreciate nice things and understand what it takes to live a decent life, I have a real ambivolence towards money. I honestly wish I didn’t need it. Guess I sound nuts.

HOLY ****! DITTO!!! I know I’ve been around wealth because I feel it and recognize quality when I see it. This life time? Born in a very poor family and very dysfunctional at that. Yeah, right. I really though could care less about money and I too have a real ambivalence towards it. Yes we are comfortable thank goodness but I have real problems getting into the business end with my Talent. You don’t sound nuts at all. I see me in you and it stuns me! Hubby … money means everything to him yet it brings him no happiness and that is what I am trying to get across to him. As for readings no one has been able to read me right so I’ve stopped trying. I seem a mystery. LOL 😂 I’m a free spirit go figure yet my home means everything to me. I’m nothing but conflicting data. Tee hee …. a mish mosh. Nature is where I gain my spiritual needs. I’ve walked away from “man’s” church a long time ago. I’ve been told by spirit not to listen to man but only to Inner Guidance within me and everytime I go against what I was told I get into trouble. These conversations have my jaw dropping. Honestly. Royalty in disguise? Hehehehehehe …. Now that I would NOT doubt! And no money does NOT bring happiness. If ya don’t have happy in your heart ya got nothing. Same goes for health. Yep. Know those two lessons really well!!! And it is nice to meet you, Ms. Cancer! 🙂

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Observations in the Illusion

Hi,
Cheryl here. I can hardly believe how quickly the years have added up since I first began blogging, with life events that saw me migrate from the US to Paradise and back-twice! I would not give anything for the rich experiences we had in Costa Rica and I miss it every day. We will visit every chance we get; however, life is rarely a straight and wide path and for this portion of it we are back living in the states. I am fortunate to be living in a place rich with wildlife, beauty and wonderful inspiration. If you hang around I promise I will keep sharing with you and hope you find something to enjoy in what my camera and I manage to capture. My deepest desire is to find and show the common vein that connects us all. We live as one, breathe as one, were created as one. If we could just combine all our brilliant thoughts into one fine idea, what a wonderful world we would have. Love and Light. My tropicalaffair site is full and so I have moved. You can still read about our adventures here or hop over to my new place at https://dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/first-blog-post/ I hope to see you there!

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